Hourglass
by XanthippeAlexithymia
Summary: Joan Thompson has known Bruce Banner for years, which recently means knowing Tony Stark as well. When the two men are called by Agent Hill after S.H.I.E.L.D. collapses, she is asked to become the primary physician of the Avengers. Unable to refuse, she accepts the offer. Shortly after, she meets Steve Rogers. But just how long will she be around to care for this team? Steve/OC
1. Just a Test

**Author's Note: Read**

Hey! Thank you for clicking on this story.

So, just a warning, the little blurb below is just a test to see if people could be interested in this story. I've had writer's block for, well, ages now, but the past few days I have been writing this story none stop. I typed this up very quickly, so there may be errors. Future additions will be edited more carefully, but I happen to be really hungry yet really eager to post this, so I compromised.

I will be posting an actual chapter soon, possibly today or tomorrow, but please let me know what you think. The amount of interest I find in the story will influence how I continue. And by that, I mean a helpful comment or two will really push me to dedicate myself to this. I'm not expecting ten people to review right away, just a couple people to show they are intrigued. I don't require much to get excited. :)

Thanks for clicking and reading! (And no, this is not actually the beginning of the story, this scene would come later, in case you were wondering.)

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><p>Glancing around the room, I saw a little boy looking straight at me, standing a few feet away on the other side of a throng of people. He had to be about six, hair dark and just long enough to ruffle, with bright green eyes. Green eyes that were shinier than they should have been. A bright logo on his shirt peaked out from the open zipper of his jacket and I instantly recognized the red and blue striped shield with a star in its center. Looking back up at the boy, I smiled as warmly as I could, careful to keep it in place as he approached.<p>

"Have you seen my mom?" the little boy asked.

"Maybe. What does she look like?" I asked.

"Kind of like you, but her hair is dark and she's wearing red," he said.

"Okay, my name is Joan," I told him, holding out my hand.

"Andy," he said, taking it.

"And your mom's name? What is it?"

"Cathy."

"Okay. Let's see if we can find her or a security officer, alright?" Standing from the bench where I had been waiting for Steve, I led the boy towards the main lobby with his hand, knowing there would be security there, all the while looking for red. If Steve got back and found I was still gone, he would know to call me. If not, I'm sure he could track me down somehow. "Do you know where she might have gone, Andy?"

"No."

"That's okay, I'm sure she's close." Walking out of the oceanic exhibit and into the world of dinosaurs, I spotted a security officer. Trying to make eye contact, I waved towards him only for his attention to turn to his radio. "Excuse me," I called out. "Sir? Excuse me, I-."

I had already jumped and taken a sharp breath, my heart racing, before I realized it was in reaction to a loud sound that hung in the air, rumbling on like thunder. People gave startled screams, the bones in the hall clattering together from the vibrations I still felt in my feet. Everyone looked around in confusion, startled and murmuring to each other in the relative silence following the sound.

"Evacuate!" the security officer bellowed suddenly, waving his arms towards the back of the hall. "Evacuate, now, every-." Another sound engulfed his words, louder this time, closer, booming nearly as loud as my heart.

A bomb.

The hall turned from confusion to panic in the same moment, the crowds screaming and running towards every direction in chaos. I moved towards the back, Andy's hand locked in a death grip within my own. Before we could reach the back of the room, a round of explosions came from the halls leading to the Paleolithic path of life. The disaster was so close I could see the fire and feel the heat on my cheeks. Andy was sobbing beside me, trying to pull away, but we both were pushed to the side by frantic people. I fell onto the stairs leading up to the second level, pulling Andy with me. As I went to stand on the stairs, deserted except for the last few people scrambling down them, I heard a new round of terrified screams. This time, they weren't drowned out by an explosion, rather accompanied by a percussion.

Gunmen.

With three escapes likely already blocked, fleeing crowds were running right into the arms of their attackers. With Andy by me, I knew we needed to run away and quick, before the gunmen reached this hall.

"Come on!" I yelled over the cacophony, pulling Andy up the stairs, dragging him over the steps two at a time.

We needed to hide. Where could we hide? Where were we going? What was I doing? What was happening? Where was Steve? Where was I?

Bursting off the last step, I found the second floor mostly deserted, a few people cowering on the ground. My eyes were everywhere at once, yet focused on nothing. I never stopped moving, pulling Andy behind me. We passed the exhibits' entrances, racing by skeletons, botany, birds, minerals, gemsto-.

Minerals.

The exhibit had an interactive cave for children to climb through.

Backtracking and nearly yanking Andy's arm out of the socket, I ran past the displays of the Earth's layers and explanations of different kinds of soil until we reached the cave. The entrance was partially hidden, the tunnels disappearing behind the exterior rock climbing wall. There were a few places in the wall where clear plastic replaced face rock, allowing the kids inside the tunnels to look out and letting parents watch their children's progress.

"Get in," I told Andy, pushing him into the small entrance.

"Why?" he asked, still crawling as he sobbed.

"Because, we need to hide." A loud series of noises from back the way we came made me climb in after Andy, pushing him through the crawl space that was too small for me. We moved up in the network of tunnels, our every thud echoing off the thick plastic. When we reached the first window, I stopped Andy. Everything was quite, but his sobbing was made louder by the tunnel.

"Andy, honey, I need you to be quiet, ok? Absolutely silent, do you understand?" I whispered. He nodded, sniveling, and covered his mouth with his hand. "Good boy," I said. "Now, slide to the other side of the window. Sit to do it." Andy listened, sitting on his shorts and sliding to the other side. "Good. Stay there." I pulled myself on my stomach towards the clear plastic, its yellow hue making the tunnel glow.

Peering outside while exposing as little of myself as I could, I saw groups of people frantically running through the exhibit, not one daring to look back. The gunmen must have been advancing to make people return upstairs.

A spasm in my chest made me hiss in pain, the tunnel echoing the thuds of my movements as my body tried to jerk back into itself. Just then, I noticed how warm I was, how I was sweating, how my heart was racing. For the moment, the spasm was a single occurrence, but if it returned I wouldn't be able to control myself. I would scream and thrash and would not be able to stop it once it started. Looking up, I saw Andy quivering, his knees pulled to his chest.

"Everything will be okay," I breathed, knowing my voice would be strained. I looked away when the next spasm came, longer this time. Gritting my teeth and fisting my hands, it passed in silence, but left me with a sense of dread. It was coming and so were the gunmen.

Before another wave came, I only had one thought.

Where was Steve?


	2. Chapter One

The grass was cold against my skin and the ground a bit damp from rain earlier, but it hadn't stopped me from laying back in it to look up at the sky. Even though it was a clear night, Pittsburgh had too much light pollution to allow for any of the stars to be visible, even in this park. Instead, I closed my eyes and imagined the constellation popping up on the back of my eye lids, trying to see if I could remember where to place them. Just as I was debating where Orion would be this time of year, my phone began to buzz in my pocket. Fishing it out, I accepted the call, not needing to look to know who it was.

"Hello."

"Where are you?" Bruce asked, his distant voice suggesting he hadn't bothered to pull his head away from his microscope before calling. Taking a deep breath, I pulled myself up into a sitting position, starting to feel the bottom of my jeans soaking in the ground's moisture.

"I told you, coffee run," I said, standing and brushing off my butt before walking back towards the path weaving through the park.

"That was almost an hour ago. It's almost midnight, Joan."

"I'm on my way back right now. Don't go all green on me, Bruce," I told him, smiling at the disapproving sigh I heard in return.

"Just get back here."

"See you soon," I told him, hanging up and sliding my hands back into my pockets. Fall was just starting to seep into the trees, the first few green leaves fading to yellow. That meant more rain and cooler temperatures, but the nip have winter was still a ways off.

Leaving the park, I entered the sidewalks of the city, now mostly inhabited by college students having a fun Friday night out. Girls walked past, laughing with their arms linked tightly as they ignored how cold their bare legs probably were. Meanwhile, boys from the other side of the street ogled them freely, but were reserved enough to not catcall. Cars, mostly taxis and buses, ran up and down the brightly lit streets, ready to pick up passengers smart enough not to drive themselves home. It was a typical night in the city.

And I spent it at a desk buried in papers and folders doing research with one of the more anonymous superheroes of the world. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Swinging into McDonald's, the only place still open with coffee on the way back to the lab, I got Bruce a black coffee and myself a hot chocolate with no whip cream. By the time I reached the lab, the drinks had cooled enough to drink.

Recently, Bruce had set up camp in the basement of a parking lot. While I had to hand it to him that it certainly wasn't a place where people would suspect him to be, I also thought he could do better. After New York three years ago, he had once more gone off the grid, but that didn't mean he sat around and did nothing. Usually, he ran around to the developing countries of the world and performed good deeds, healing the sick and purifying water and such. When he wasn't being a Good Samaritan, though, he was hunched over his microscope in some out of the way lab with me by his side.

Bruce and I met shortly after his incident in Harlem. I had set out looking for him, but in the end Bruce had found me. Actually, he'd found me snooping in a lab he had and held me against the wall by my throat. Our relationship improved after that, needless to say. I had been a student, part of the medical program, at Culver University during his…incident with General Ross. I happened to be one of the lab assistants assigned the task of cleaning up the lab where he was administered the serum. While there, I made a mistake.

I nicked myself. While cleaning up some broken metal, I cut a shallow gash in my index finger. It bled a bit, so I washed it out and wrapped a tissue around it until I could find the first aid kit in the rubble. I knew I wouldn't need stitches, rather the cut was simply a nuisance. Then, I happened upon the remaining vials of the serum. Later, General Ross would send someone to collect them, but as I was putting them into a box for safe keeping, the lid of one vial was knocked loose. I'd cursed at myself, quickly wiping up the mess I made and even taking a little bit of serum from each vial so they all appeared evenly full in hopes of not getting caught. What I didn't pay attention to was the fact that while wiping up the serum, it had soaked through the paper towels I'd used and the tissue on my finger. I wasn't really worried at the time because I didn't notice. That, and the fact that after the clean-up we learned that everyone in the lab had been exposed to gamma radiation. A few of us who'd done most of the cleaning had radiation poisoning, more technically known as acute radiation syndrome. We were all treatable, though, since we had only been exposed to some radiation. Personally, I suffered cell damage, but was given antibiotics and an array of other treatments before the doctors said I would be fine.

So I finished med school, not thinking anything of the time I had once had radiation poisoning. It became a fun fact about myself I pulled out at parties to trump other people's interesting tidbits. I thought it was all behind me until one day, while working in a research lab, my muscles started to spasm uncontrollably and I seized. It had been late at night, long after everyone had gone home, so nobody heard my screams or was there as I lay prone of the floor, exhausted and sweating. I had been scared at the time, not sure of any medical malady that would result in such symptoms. It wasn't epilepsy because I hadn't simply seized, that had followed the spasms that felt as though they were tearing apart every single cell in my being.

Immediately, I began to run tests, one of the many including intensive bloodwork. I didn't understand the results, though, so I continued on studying until I found an answer. My cells were suffering from damage, exactly like they had when I'd had radiation poisoning. Except I hadn't been exposed to radiation. Some of my cells were different though. They were like nothing I had ever seen before. When I tested them, I found the mutated cells were the source of the radiation. But how?

It wasn't until Dr. Bruce Banner reappeared that things started to click. Gamma radiation had mutated my cells, just like the serum had made it possible for him to turn into the Hulk. Again, how? Thinking back to the only time I had interacted with the serum, I realized the truth I had missed at the time. The serum had entered my cut.

So I tracked down Banner, got thrown against a wall, and asked for his help. He had been surprised I was alive and also suspicious that I was associated with General Ross. After he was convinced I didn't know him and that I wasn't in danger of turning into a monster like Blonsky and going insane, he agreed to help me.

Together, we studied my blood to see what exactly was happening. It turned out that only some of my cells had been mutated. Those that weren't were poisoned by the radiation from the 'gammafied cells' as I called them. My spasms were a result of the 'gammafied cells' trying to mutate me into, what we assumed, was a version of the Hulk. By doing this, my damaged cells would be healed. Since my intake of serum had been so little, though, it was impossible for me to shift forms like Dr. Banner. Instead, the spasms managed to heal a few cells, keeping me alive, but then the 'gammafied cells' simply damaged them, starting a vicious cycle.

Bruce knew there was no cure, and after a while I began to accept that. I stayed with him, having abandoned the surgical program I had been a part of before I could take my boards, and helped him with his research. Every once in a while, he would leave because he though General Ross or some other unforeseen enemy was creeping up on him, but he would always reappear in the end. I became his assistant of sorts. During the Battle of New York, I had been at home, visiting my family. Afterwards, though, we had met up and started a new lab in Pittsburgh.

Bruce told me all about New York and the Avengers, even about S.H.I.E.L.D., though I got the sense it was a kind of "I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you" organization. He didn't trust S.H.I.E.L.D., and while Bruce had always been suspicious, I thought his worry was worth consideration.

I also met Tony Stark not long after. I knew who he was, everyone did, but the day I entered the lab and found the Ironman suit staring me down, I dropped my armful of research. Tony grew on me in the three years following the Battle of New York, but he still drove me up the wall sometimes. His girlfriend, Pepper, however, was one of the best people I knew. When we all got together on holidays, usually at obscure locations because of Bruce's insistence, we girls always huddled up in a corner and were relieved to share the insanity of the men whose company we kept. While Bruce was pretty low maintenance, he did had anger issues at times and usually was so untrusting of everything it was surprising he could survive. Once he went to get groceries and made the cashier cry because he thought she was taking down his card information to track him. Now he always pays in cash. Complaining about Bruce was like complaining about an older brother, a much older brother. He was nearly twenty years older than me, but anytime I jokingly called him my dad I was punished with weeks' worth of fact checking in the lab, doing experiments a high schooler could do.

So the three of them became my new family in a way. Bruce became my brother, Pepper a sister, and Tony that really wonky cousin that comes up with crazy things to do that will either be the best thing you've ever done or kill you. Usually, the latter. I still had my real family, a pair of parents, two siblings, and three dogs back home, but I couldn't tell them about my condition, or that I knew two superheroes personally. I was dying, and I didn't want to tell them.

Recently, my condition had advanced. While at first it had taken me five years to have my first full body spasm, now I had one every few months. After abandoning his hopes of finding a cure of the serum, Bruce had started up again, this time with Tony's help. Our research went nowhere, though, so usually we worked on damage control. We looked for ways to lessen the pain or make spasm pass quicker rather than focusing on an all-out cure. Bruce was quite on the subject, mostly because he had already resigned himself to the fact that there was nothing he could do, but Tony was persistent. When wasn't he?

Walking into the lab with drinks in hand, I found Bruce talking to Tony on one of his many computer screens that the billionaire had installed on his last visit, saying our tech was too outdated and that the place had needed a bit of sprucing up.

"Any news from the others recently?" Bruce asked, eyebrows perking up when I approached with coffee in hand. I slid it across the table to him, keeping out of view from his webcam before moving over to my own desk, buried in papers and folders. I had a screen too, but I preferred to look at data on paper. Something about being able to physically hold it in my hands and mark on it with a pen made everything seem more permanent to me and remembered it all better. Sure, it was a mess when I needed to find that one line of data on that one page of that one article, but it eventually worked.

"The superspy lovebirds are doing secret stuff, though I think Romanoff was with Cap in D.C. recently, and Thor is still up in space. How is miss munchkin doing?" A familiar face and goatee popped up on my screen, giving me a small startle before I grinned.

"Have you heard of knocking, Tony?" I asked.

"Not my style. How's your health?"

"Tony," Bruce said, slowly drawing out the name as if he could actually give the man a warning.

"You know the answer to that," I told him, filing through my folders before pulling out the one bearing Stark's company logo. "I just got your file yesterday. I'm not sure there's much I can do about adapting your arc reactor to anything suitable for what you want. Powering an electromagnet is one thing, but this…this is extensive stuff."

"Keep looking at it and we'll talk more when you two get to New York. The plane will be there to pick you up in an hour."

"Tony!" Bruce admonished. "We're in the middle of some very important research."

"And JARVIS has already transferred said research to your new lab in the tower. Wait until you see all the new toys. See you then." Stark was gone from my screen a blink later.

"That man," Bruce said. "Sometimes he…he just-."

"Aggravates you?" I offered.

"Yes."

"But he does it in such a smartass way that it's actually kind of enjoyable."

"I won't agree to that." I smiled at the doctor, leaning over to grab my bag and put Tony's file in it.

"You know there's no point arguing with him."

"Of course I do. Go pack a bag."

"Yes, sir," I saluted.

"And don't go on a walk this time," Bruce called as I left, taking a long drink from his coffee. "Tony won't want to wait because you feel like laying down in a field somewhere."

"Okay, okay. Jeez, relax, big guy. I'll be back to pick you up in a half hour, then we can go to the airport."

"And don't call me big guy!" The door swung shut behind me and I smiled, jogging up the stairs to the first level where my car lived. It was a beat up Jeep, but still roaring with life when I turned on the engine. Bruce kept a travel bag in the lab, but mine was back at the apartment we shared. Really, it was basically my apartment where Bruce showed up every once and again. He paid rent and had a room, but spent more night in a sleeping bag on the floor of the lab.

By the time I returned to the lab, my bag in the back, Bruce was ready and I drove us to the airport where Tony's jet was waiting for us on the tarmac. Leaving my Jeep, knowing someone would appear from somewhere to park it because Tony always covered all of his bases, I entered the jet and slouched into the nearest seat. I knew it was a less than two hour flight, so I cuddled into my seat for a nap, tuning out Bruce as he turned on his laptop and started typing away. He didn't sleep much, not unless he was somewhere he thought was secure. While anything owned by Tony was usually safe, Bruce just wasn't comfortable with confined spaces because if the Hulk woke up, he knew that it wouldn't end well for anybody.

Landing woke me up and Happy greeted us on the tarmac. Taking us straight to Stark tower, I took the elevator straight to the floor that held my apartment, leaving Bruce to face Tony now and saying I would see him in the morning. I barely acknowledged anything on my way to my room. JARVIS recognized me and opened my door for me so I didn't have to enter my key code. Dropping my bag on the couch in my small living room, I passed the small study and kitchen in my apartment before reaching the bedroom. I collapsed onto the bed, moaning as it seemed to hug be pack. As much as Bruce and I bounced around, it had never been logical to invest in a decent mattress if it was only going to last you for a little while. Tony, however, spared no expense and for that I was overwhelmingly thankful. Grabbing the cover, I rolled myself a few times until I was sufficiently wrapped and fell asleep.

When I woke up I was suffocating. Untangling myself from the nest of overly warm blankets was like trying to escape quicksand, every time a limb escaped my bed, the covers pulled it back in. Finally, I climbed out, well aware that it was too warm in my room. The low level of radiation poisoning I had usually resulted in a fever, just enough to always make me a little too warm, but not enough to appear sickly.

"JARVIS, can you turn on the air conditioning?" I asked, grimacing as I pulled hair off of my clammy face.

"Of course. Mr. Stark would like for you to join him and Mr. Banner in the main kitchen when you are ready, Miss Thompson," JARVIS replied as I heard the air turn on, the fan above my bed also starting to turn in lazy circles.

"I will in a bit," I told him, moving to my bathroom and turning the water on lukewarm.

After a shower and new pair of clothes, I wandered up to the main kitchen on Tony's public level, seeing as he claimed three level all too himself, and found the two men in deep discussion at the table. Windows surrounded the room, offering gorgeous views of New York City and giving plenty of light to the white and chrome kitchen. It looked so clean I could swear no one ever used it, but I knew Pepper tried to cook every once in a while, though Tony's personal chef made most of their meals.

"Good morning, boys," I greeted, grabbing a bagel and biting into in plain.

"About time you woke up shorty," Tony said, standing to refill his coffee and mussing up my short hair on the way. I jerked my head away, looking into the reflection of the microwave to find he had messed up style I had spent ages shaping my pixie cut into that morning. Huffing, I ran my fingers through my blonde hair a few times before giving up.

"What did you call us up here for, Tony?" I asked.

"What, I'm not allowed to miss your faces?" he asked innocently.

"You look like you haven't slept in days," I told him. Tony leaned against the counter with a sigh.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. is gone."

"What?" Bruce asked, twisting in his chair.

"I don't know what happened. Something went down in D.C. involving Cap and Romanoff. Fury is reportedly dead, but I have my suspicions about that. I wanted you both to be back here. I don't know what's going to happen in the aftermath of S.H.I.E.L.D. disbanding, but we'll be more prepared for it if we're together," Tony said.

"What about-."

"Mr. Stark, there has been an override of the security in the elevator," JARVIS announced.

"Who is it?"

"Agent Hill and Agent Barton, sir," JARVIS said as the doors opened. Out walked the most serious looking woman I had ever seen followed by an equally serious man. Both were dressed in civilian clothes, but from the way they carried themselves it was clear that they could pack a punch, the man more so than the woman. Bruce and Tony had told me about Barton, sometimes calling him a variation of Hawkeye, and looking at him know I knew everything they said had been true.

"Stark, Dr. Banner, we need you to come in," Agent Hill said.

"Come in to where exactly, Agent Hill?" Tony asked.

"Fury left a message for both of you. We'll have to take you to a secure location before giving it to you," she told him.

"I thought he was dead," Tony replied.

"We both know better than that."

"Alright then. Joan, why don't you-."

"She'll be coming with us," Agent Barton interjected.

"Why?" Bruce asked, standing from his chair so abruptly it screeched loudly on the tile.

"Because," Agent Hill said, "Fury has a message for her too." Both Bruce and Tony turned to look at me, worried and incredulous at the same time.

"What the hell did you do?" Tony asked.

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><p>Hello, and thank you for clicking and reading this story!<p>

Some of you may have read the brief blurb I posted yesterday. If you did, thank you for that, if you didn't, not to worry. I was just testing out whether or not there would be an interest in this story by looking at how many views it got and such. I was AMAZED by how many people chose to follow it right away! Thank you for that, all of you.

This is officially chapter one. I will be taking the blurb down soon, possibly when I post the next chapter.

So, I will admit that I haven't seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier. When I started writing this, I was sure if I would have this take place directly after the Avengers or what, but it morphed into taking place after Captain America 2. Thus, I had to do my research and learned that S.H.E.I.L.D. no longer exists. No biggie, I'll just have to shift around a few things. Luckily, I hadn't written this story to be completely S.H.I.E.L.D. driven.

I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter, I know it was a lot of Joan's background all at once. I considered waiting to reveal it, but realized that in my story it's an issue right away and I didn't want to string you guys along wondering "what is this thing she hints at, but never tells us?". I've read stories where an author hides a main character's secret for too long and it gets annoying. This story is first person, so it makes sense that Joan is fully aware of her condition and what it involves rather than tiptoeing around the subject. Really, the secret is going to be keeping it from everyone else, other than Tony, Pepper, and Bruce because they obviously know.

But, I hope you liked it.

Please feel free to leave a review, they feed my muse and push me to keep writing.

Also, I apologize for any spelling errors. Again, I am very hungry and wanted to to this posted, so I compromised.

Thanks again!


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